1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to storage apparatus and, more particularly, relates to apparatus for storing items such as audio and video cassettes and compact discs in a space-efficient manner, while still facilitating access and visibility in an attractive manner.
2. State of the Prior Art
Many devices have been developed to store records, cassettes and compact discs. These devices are characterized by inefficient use of space, unattractive features, poor visibility of stored articles, difficulty of placing the articles into the storage devices and removing the articles therefrom, and relatively poor cost-effective storage. For example, one known cassette storage device is formed of a wire basket and slides within a wire cage. Tape cassettes are stored in vertical orientation within the basket, making the tapes rather difficult to see, difficult to place within the basket and difficult to remove from the basket. The cage makes the entire device relatively large and unattractive.
Other cassette storage devices include boxes in which cassettes are stored in vertical orientation in spaced-apart relationship. The known devices also include racks wherein the cassettes are mounted in horizontal orientation, but within or protruding slightly from enclosures. The structures of these devices makes it difficult to position the cassettes within the enclosures, as well as difficult to remove the cassettes from the enclosures.
The U.S. Pat. No. 4,411,481, to Berkman, issued Oct. 25, 1983, discloses a tray slidably mounted within a drawer and having rectangular bins for storing audio and video cassettes, and video game cartridges. Each bin comprises vertical and horizontal walls, and resilient retaining fingers to retain the stored articles in a vertical orientation.
The U.S. Pat. No. 4,655,345, to Drake et al, issued Apr. 7, 1987, discloses a compact disc storage unit. The unit comprises an outer housing and a number of slots located on the upper and lower surfaces of the housing interior. These slots are used to store compact discs in a vertical face-to-face orientation. A raised central portion located on the upper outside surface of a lower housing connects to rests located on the bottom surface of an upper housing to vertically stack a plurality of housings. Compact discs are placed on slidable members for loading into the unit. A handle on the housing permits transportation of the storage unit.
The U.S. Pat. No. 4,650,072, to Ackeret, issued Mar. 17, 1987, discloses an audio cassette storage magazine comprised of a solid outer housing. Located in the housing is a pair of half-housings. Each half-housing can store four vertically stacked cassettes in horizontal orientation. Tapes are stored horizontally within the half-housings. By opening a door located on each half-housing, a slider on which the tapes rest is partially ejected for ease of tape removal. The outer housing is fixedly mounted by a yoke to a surface underneath a dashboard in the interior of an automobile.
The U.S. Pat. No. 4,647,118, to Kamperman, issued Mar. 3, 1987, discloses tape, disc and record storage boxes comprised of solid walls and a door. When the door is placed in an open position, the contents, which are stored in a vertical orientation, are partially withdrawn by a slide mechanism attached to the door. Storage boxes can be vertically and/or horizontally interlocked by slides and channels located on the outside surface of the boxes.
The U.S. Pat. No. 4,592,600, to Bohnet et al, issued Jun. 3, 1986, discloses stackable video and audio cassette storage boxes with various methods of indicating when a cassette is in each box. In one embodiment of the invention, a storage box has five cassettes stacked horizontally in drawers located within the storage box.
The U.S. Pat. No. 3,114,459, to Kersting, issued Dec. 17, 1963, discloses in part a wire frame for record storage, wherein the records are stored in a face-to-face manner. The wire frame is mounted to a shelf through conventional U-shaped drawer glides mounted to the shelf and the wire rack. A stop mechanism is provided by a small rod inserted into apertures located in the rear portion of each frame drawer glide. The frame motion will stop when the rod comes into contact with the bottom drawer glide. Rearward motion of the frame is stopped by the engagement of bends located at the lower front portion of the wire frame side member with the stationary lower drawer glide.
The U.S. Pat. No. 2,892,548, to Huff, issued Jun. 30, 1959, discloses a collapsible record storage rack. The rack comprises a series of at least seven inverted U-shaped wires mounted on channel-shaped side holders. A base portion comprised of longitudinal and cross-wires is inserted into or removed from the channel-shaped side holders by pulling the side holders laterally apart and pressing the base into place in the side holders.
The U.S. Pat. No. 2,959,293, to VonMeyer, issued Nov. 8, 1960, discloses a record storage rack comprised of two end members held together by two longitudinal rods. The rods are spaced at predetermined vertical and horizontal distances apart. The records sit vertically face-to-face on the rods. The end pieces are then moved to a position adjacent the record jackets to hold the records in place.
The U.S. Pat. No. 3,446,360, to Gutierrez, issued May 27, 1969, discloses a boxlike frame used for record storage. Pivotally mounted transverse slotted record-holding members are located in the box. Records are placed in the slotted portion of the record holders for storage.
Other storage devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,318,453 to Cavanagh, issued May 9, 1967; U.S. Pat. No. 3,347,393 to Frey, issued Oct. 17, 1967; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,800,958 to Dorn, issued Apr. 2, 1974.
Finally, commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/111,442, filed Oct. 21, 1987, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,887,725 discloses a storage assembly comprising a rack having a series of at least four U-shaped wires in spaced relationship and a track slidably mounting the rack.